The US Diplomatic Leaks: A Superpower's View of the World

[sysop]

251,000 State Department documents, many of them secret embassy reports from around the world, show how the US seeks to safeguard its influence around the world. It is nothing short of a political meltdown for US foreign policy.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...731580,00.html

[sirajul]

If one tells the truth at all times then there is nothing to be hidden. Secrets are lies. This report reveals that when they say that nothing is going on when the truth is that there is a lot of messy things going on in our governments. It's global diplomatic setback, but the truth is merciless.

[verbatim128]

Originally Posted by sysop

251,000 State Department documents, many of them secret embassy reports from around the world, show how the US seeks to safeguard its influence around the world. It is nothing short of a political meltdown for US foreign policy.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...731580,00.html

A sad reminder of the poor quality of people who lead us, their lack of substance, even common sense. Enough said.

[barrycooper1]

Egos certainly might be bruised, but diplomatic professionals understand that their job is to serve the interests of their nations, and those interests do not change if someone calls them poopyheads.

The leaks on Afghanistan and Iraq were far more serious. Assange is likely a murderer, and should be prosecuted as a criminal. Frankly, if I were the American President he would have died in a car accident some time ago. I have no patience for those who carelessly risk the lives not just of our soldiers, but of our allies.

Does Assange really think we have been something other than an agent of justice in Afghanistan? We took over that nation with airpower, some 200 Special Forces, and Afghan troops. What does that tell you?

It is astounding to me how racist and illiberal leftists are. They assume that since America is defined as the evil one, that any nation where we might happen to have troops does not benefit from our presence. This is stupid. Had we pulled out of Iraq when the Left wanted us to, hundreds of thousands of innocent people would have died. Their consciences would have been clear, since they could blame us; but those people would still have been dead, and given that we could have prevented it, they would have been dead unnecessarily.

In point of fact, this is what happened in Vietnam, where we gave up on a very tenable position--the counterinsurgency had been won in the South by 1972, as evidenced by the need for a massive conventional offensive by the North--in order to turn the South over to a fascist dictatorship, which murdered outright several hundred thousand people, and ruined the lives of many millions more by sending them to work camps where they were systematically psychologically and physically tortured.

It is quite impossible to be a sincerely decent human being and embrace this history, on any level, for any reason. We may not have known better then, but we have the actual history from people who fought for the North now, many of whom were themselves betrayed, and who have been quite eager to tell the truth to the few--the very few--who would listen.

I will add that whoever leaked these cables should spend the rest of his days in a jail cell. This is treason, definitionally, and practically.

[Naturhuf]

Reckless??!I find this exceedingly refreshing - put it ALL out on the table. Show your true colors!!

This should really be done with every country worldwide - perhaps then we would stopp playing those stupid, competitive political games and actually get something done that would benefit us humans and this world as a whole!

LESS EGO and more humble pie would be so helpful in this respect!

[barrycooper1]

would all of you be perfectly happy with the contents of your diaries being put out on the internet? How about films you've made of "intimate encounters"? How about your income tax returns, and the amount you spend on pornography, and every extramarital/cheating encounter you've had?

What if someone kills themself as a result? Cuckolded men do that--directly and indirectly--all the time.

Or, alternatively: what if the contents of your thoughts could be broadcast to the world via loudspeaker? Would you all be so proud of that?

Good fences make good neighbors, as an American poet put it. Not everything needs to be known, and if--as seems likely--real, living, innocent human beings die as a result of Assange's pathological need for self importance, then the crime of being as accessory to murder has been committed.

As I said, if I were in a position of power, this would be an open and shut case. Far better one guilty man die than a hundred innocent ones. That is moral in both a utilitarian and an absolute sense.

[BTraven]

Originally Posted by verbatim128

A sad reminder of the poor quality of people who lead us, their lack of substance, even common sense. Enough said.

At least in the bureaucracy work people who have the level of education to uncover the true character of politician. The media is not interested in doing it anymore.

[verbatim128]

Originally Posted by BTraven

At least in the bureaucracy work people who have the level of education to uncover the true character of politician. The media is not interested in doing it anymore.

Say that again?

[bl00my]

Originally Posted by barrycooper1

would all of you be perfectly happy with the contents of your diaries being put out on the internet?

Yes, thats totally the same. You know what? If the U.S. governemnt would base its decisions on my diary then IŽd totally agree that it should be public knowledge.

1. I doubt that anyone would write something "private" in these files that were available to thousands (250000?) of government employees.
2. Like I said above, since these files were used to decide on political decisions, yes, they ought to be available to the public.

[BTraven]

Originally Posted by verbatim128

Say that again?

No problem:
At least in the bureaucracy work people who have the level of education to uncover the true character of politician. The media is not interested in doing it anymore.